It wasn’t that long ago that Herlin Riley brought his positive energy to the New Orleans Jazz Museum, playing drums for Dee Dee Bridgewater’s Improvisations Gala set. Tomorrow, Tuesday, January 12, from 5-6 p.m. CST, Riley will return to the museum’s balcony for a Facebook livestream event with an old friend: Pianist David Torkanowsky.

As fans already know, Riley and Torkanowsky have played together for almost 40 years, the two used to duo gig together at Tyler’s Beer Garden on Magazine. Riley says that playing with an old friend is “instinctive” now because they’ve known each other for so long.

“There’s no substitute for life experience,” says the drummer. “And by now we’ve had many different life experiences and musical experiences. Music has evolved so much since we started playing together so now there is a lot more to choose from in our repertoire. We revisit old songs and do new material, too, when we play together.”

As the City rolls back restrictions on live music performance, Riley is optimistic about the ability to play and livestream from the New Orleans Jazz Museum balcony. “One positive is that you are practicing physical distancing and there is some access to people on the streets seeing, experiencing, and hearing your music.”

The New York Times said that since emerging on the national jazz scene in the 1980s, Herlin Riley  “has been a shining exemplar of New Orleans rhythm — as a cultural study, a living language and a model of hybridity.”

Watch Riley and Torkanowsky with Wendell Brunious and Freddie Lonzo performing at Bywater Bakery in 2019 and tune in via Facebook live 5-6 p.m. Tuesday, January 12 here.